Fantasy Flight Games: X-Wing.

The downside of the Advanced is that no matter what you strap onto it, you can't escape it's dial. Which is awful. Played my first game with it today (Advanced, Bomber, 2x Fighters, 2x Interceptors, just for fun!) and it was being outmaneuvered by EVERYTHING. There's simply no good way to shed stress on there, and with the release of Mara Jade, Tactician et al, you NEED to be able to drop stress with something other than a straight move. Sure, you might find some combo with wingman or whatever, but then you're paying for a whole new ship just to counter your crap dial.

Which makes me sad, because like a lot of people, I would like Vader (or just an Advanced) leading my fighter swarm.

ChaosRedCorsairLord said:

Really, you think this dial is awful:

Don't ever use the hawk or shuttle man, you'll shit a brick. XD

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Well the Hawk and Shuttle isn't trying to stay together with Eyeballs, Squints and Phantoms. You're missing the hard 1s, so you can't maintain formation. You don't have a straight 1, so can't easily stay on the tails of fighters who can slow play you like Ys and Bs. Your stress relief is either a straight line or a soft 1, which makes you very predictable when stressed, especially with Vader who NEEDs to drop stress as soon as he gets it in order to keep using his ability.

In a vacuum, sure, I don't have much of a problem with it, but when he can't pull the same turns as a 12pt TIE... I don't want him escorting my Shuttle, or failing to keep up with Fel. I've run Vader once, and a generic Bright once, and both times the dial was the biggest obstacle to it fitting into the rest of my fleet. Which is why even if he gets a free evade dice or whatever, I probably still won't be using him except in bigger games, or ones where I'm happily playing for fluff rather than wins.

Is the problem that it's French, or that you set your maximum rather higher than you're comfortable with after a few minutes of rational thought? :shok:

The internet seems to think that 25th of this month or thereabouts is likely.

I've got my pre-orders in with a FLGS for two of everything in S&V, he says he's got a list and is ticking names off, so I'm fairly confident I'll manage to get what I asked for. If not, I'm sure I can keep playing Imperials til we get a restock in a few months! :laugh:

I'm not that excited to be playing WITH Scum, as much as I am looking forward to playing AGAINST it, if I'm honest. None of the ships/pilots really attract me that I've bothered to look at (I've deliberately not looked for spoilers), but I anticipate with delight people using a faction that has no turrets of any kind...

Question is whether you have a 3PO card to put on her...

The Raider will improve the Advanced, no doubt, however it doesn't address the big weakness, which is the dial. I'm not convinced that they will become the new "power" Imperial ship. What it does, instead, is give us a viable ship in the mid-20s point range, which we've previously lacked - you essentially had to run two TIEs, or a pretty basic Interceptor.

Dash is, to my mind, better than the Falcon, especially since he no longer has to burn 12pts on a HLC to get some kind of damage output. Having a large ship able to boost and barrel roll off asteroids (often behind them) with 2 green dice means you've very frequently got a 10hp ship rolling 3 evade dice at attackers, to say nothing of arc dodging like a pro. That makes it massively more survivable than the Falcon, who relies on not being focused and tanking the few hits it does take on a couple of evade tokens.

I've seen it, and I'll certainly give her a try, but I'm not convinced she'll replace my beloved Defenders at the 30pt+ mark, or for that matter Fel/Vader.

Dash suits VI, if you have it, to ramp him up to PS9 for a single point. Lets him outshoot almost anything, esp if you have initiative.

It's not so much about the shooting (although with a Mangler getting crits in before they attack is sweet) and more about knowing where to barrel roll to! But then I haven't played the Rebel big ships much, they're a bit too... popular... for me to really want to use them.

That loadout is maneuverable, it's true, but then you're spending 35pts on a ship that averages a single hit per unmodified attack, which isn't enough to damage a TIE fighter. 5pts more buys you a very decent Echo, which throws double the red dice, has more green dice, and is even more maneuverable than Juno with a FCS for free target locks. I think the best use of the x1 is going to be generics with Acc Corrector to be "like an X-Wing, but Imperial".

Khorne's Fist said:

E Wing, Corran Horn, R2F2, Expert Handling, Experimental Interface, Enhanced Scopes. 44.

Headhunter, Airen Cracken, Marksmanship, Shield Upgrade. 26.

X Wing, Garven Dreis, Engine Upgrade. 30.

I know, for Corran's price I could get Lando in the Falcon, but the R2F2's action gives Horn +1 agility until the end of the turn. EI lets him do that for free. EH gives him the free barrel roll. Then he has his standard action to take. If he's within range 1 of Cracken he gets another free action. And then Dreis can pass a focus token to him if he's at range 1-2. Now, if I'm reading that right, Horn now has 5 actions to take per turn. I know he picks up 2 stress tokens if he uses all of them, but damn, he'd be pretty fun to play. Thoughts?

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You already have Barrel Roll, so Expert Handling won't give you stress - however you can't Barrel roll twice in one turn, so it effectively just upgrades your standard barrel roll. Your only source of stress would be activating R2-F2/MM via EI. However I absolutely would NEVER leave home without a Fire Control System on Corran, because of the crazy action economy it gives with his double taps. Marksmanship and a FCS means you're shooting with super-focus and a Target lock, at everything, except for the first shot you take at it. If you've got him near Dutch or Cracken, even better.

Don't joust with a TIE swarm. Fly in circles around a tight asteroid field so that he has to break up his formation to chase you. Turrets are tricky because you need to get out of the mindset of "I need to get closer, from the side or rear, to the enemy" that dominates most small ship movement.

Khorne's Fist said:

I'll keep this in mind. The one thing that makes me hesitate about a big ship list is the low number of attack dice. I know the big boys are tougher and can last longer, but I like rolling 10 attack dice per turn if I can, especially against those delicate ties.

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The problem with large ships is that they function best in tournament games due to the time limit. In 45 minutes you can be reasonably sure of killing a TIE or two, and surviving yourself. That's enough to net you a win. In friendlies, where the games continues so long as someone has ships on the table, it's a different story.

When you play, as a bit of an experiment, compare your final result to what the result would have been if you stopped play at the 45 min/1hr mark.

I played in a small event last week, played against two Fat Han lists, and had Fel in mine.

It was painful to watch. With Autothrusters, a post-dial roll or boost, an evade and a focus, Fel is rolling at least three green dice (you can grab an optional stealth device) and needs a single symbol of any kind to negate the Falcon's attacks entirely. Compared to my preferred go-to ace (Echo) it's just a little depressing how much better Fel is versus turrets.

That's pretty much the sole reason I don't think Fat Han lists are going to do well in the next tournament circuit.

I don't think you can call a small base ship that comes in under 36pts "Fat" :laugh:

Brath, on the other hand...